450 AXNELIDES. 



Sabella, Cuv.(l) 

 The same kind of body, and similar flabelliform branchiae, as the 

 Serpulae; but the two fleshy filaments adhering to these branchiae 

 both terminate in a point, and without forming an operculum; some- 

 times they are even wanting'. The tube of the Sabellae is most com- 

 monly composed of granules of clay or mud, and is rarely calcareous. 

 The species known are large, and their fan-like branchiae remark- 

 able for their delicacy and brilliancy. 



Some of them, like the Serpulee, have a membranous disk on the 

 anterior part of the back, through which pass the first pairs of the 

 bundles of setae; their pectiniform branchiae are spirally contorted, 

 and their tentacula reduced to slight folds(2). 



Sab. prolula, Cuv.; Protula Rudolphii., Risso. A large and 

 splendid species inhabiting the Mediterranean. Its tube is 

 calcareous like that of the Serpulas, its branchiae orange co- 

 loured, Sec. (3) 

 Others have no membranous disk anteriorly; their two pectiniform 

 branchiae are equal and spiral(4). 

 There are sometimes two ranges of filaments on each comb(5). 

 In others again, only one of the two combs is thus formed; the 

 other, which is smaller, enveloping the base of the first, — Sabella 

 iinispira, Cuv.; Spirographis Spallanzanii, Viviam, Phosph. Mar., 

 pi. iv, v(6). 



(1) This name, in the works of Linnaeus and Gmelin, designates various ani- 

 mals with factitious, and not transuded, tubes; we restrict its application to those 

 which resemble each other in their peculiar characters. M. Savigny employs it 

 in the latter way, our first division excepted, which he places among his Serpulae. 

 Our Sabellae are the AMPHiTniTEs of L:imarck. 



(2) This division is left by M. Savigny among the Serpulae, and constitutes his 

 SEBPCLa; Spiiiamelljs, of which M. de tUuinville has since made his genus Sfika- 



MELXA. 



(3) The existence of this magnificent species, and the calcareous nature of its 

 tube, are incontestable, notwithstanding the doubt expressed in the Diet, des Sc. 

 Nat., LVII, p. 443, note. The Sabella hispiralis, — Amphitrite vohitacomis, Lin. 

 Trans., VII, vii, differs but slightly from it. , I dare not assert it is the same as 

 Seb., I, xxlx, 1, erroneously cited by Pallas and GmcWn wndeY Serpula gigantea, 

 for tliat figure shows no disk. 



(4) The simple Sabell.e of Savigny, Amphitrite reniformis. Mull., Ver., XVI, 

 or Tubularia penicillus. Id., Zool., Ixxxix, 1, 2, or Terehella reniformis, Gm. ; — 

 Amph. infundibulum, Mont^g., Vin. Trans, IX, viii; — Amph. vesiculosa. Id. lb., 

 XI, v. 



(5) The Sabell-e Astarts:, Savig., such as the Sabella grandis, Cuv., or Indica, 

 Sav. ; — Tubularia magnijica, Shaw^, Lin. Trans., V, ix. 



(6) The Sabella Spihogbaphic^, Savigny. 



